The 2022 Miami Grand Prix (officially known as the Formula 1 Crypto.com Miami Grand Prix 2022) was a Formula One motor race that was held on May 8, 2022, at the Miami International Autodrome in Miami Gardens, Florida. It was the first edition of the Miami Grand Prix and the fifth round of the 2022 Formula One World Championship.

The race was won by Max Verstappen, ahead of championship leader and pole-sitter Charles Leclerc in second and his teammate Carlos Sainz Jr. in third. Verstappen also set the fastest lap. The result brought Verstappen closer to Leclerc in the fight for the World Drivers' Championship, trailing the latter by just 19 points after five Grand Prix weekends. In the Constructors' Championship, Red Bull narrowed the gap to Ferrari to just six points, while Mercedes remained in third with 95 points, 62 behind Ferrari.

Background Championship standings before the race Charles Leclerc was the Drivers' Championship leader after the fourth round, the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with 86 points, 27 ahead of Max Verstappen in second, with Sergio Pérez in third, five points behind Verstappen. In the Constructors' Championship, Ferrari led Red Bull Racing by 11 points and Mercedes by 47.

Entrants

The drivers and teams were the same as the season entry list with no additional stand-in drivers for the race.

Tyre choices

Tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C2, C3, and C4 tyre compounds (designated hard, medium, and soft, respectively) for teams to use at the event.

Practice There were three practice sessions, each lasted one hour. The first two practice sessions took place on Friday May 6 at 14:30 and 17:30 local time (UTC−04:00) and the third practice session took place at 13:00 on May 7. In the first session, Leclerc was the fastest ahead of George Russell and Verstappen, who had hydraulic and overheating issues. In the second session, Russell set the fastest lap ahead of Leclerc and Pérez. In the final session, Pérez was first, ahead of Leclerc and Verstappen. There was a crash and red flag in each session; in the first session, Valtteri Bottas crashed at turn 7, while Carlos Sainz Jr. and Esteban Ocon both crashed into the concrete barrier at turn 14 in the final two sessions, respectively.

Qualifying Qualifying took place on May 7 at 16:00 local time and lasted for one hour.

Qualifying report Leclerc led Sainz for a Ferrari front-row lockout, the first since the 2019 Mexican Grand Prix. Behind them were the Red Bull drivers, Verstappen and Pérez, and Alfa Romeo's Bottas, with Lewis Hamilton, Pierre Gasly, Lando Norris, Yuki Tsunoda, and Lance Stroll completing the top ten; Russell, Hamilton's Mercedes teammate, did not make the Q3. In his final Q3 lap, Verstappen made a mistake, which he blamed on his lack of knowledge of the car on the track, while both Leclerc and Sainz improved their fastest lap to take the front row.

Qualifying classification DriverConstructorQ1Q2Q3116 Charles LeclercFerrari1:29.4741:29.1301:28.7961255 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari1:30.079 1:29.729 1:28.986 231 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-RBPT1:29.836 1:29.202 1:28.991 3411 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-RBPT1:30.055 1:29.673 1:29.036 4577 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari1:30.845 1:29.751 1:29.475 5644 Lewis HamiltonMercedes1:30.388 1:29.797 1:29.625 6710 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-RBPT1:30.779 1:30.128 1:29.690 784 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes1:30.761 1:29.634 1:29.750 8922 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-RBPT1:30.485 1:30.031 1:29.932 91018 Lance StrollAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes1:30.441 1:29.996 1:30.676 101114 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault1:30.407 1:30.160 N/A111263 George RussellMercedes1:30.490 1:30.173 N/A12135 Sebastian Vettel1:30.677 1:30.214 N/A13143 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes1:30.583 1:30.310 N/A141547Haas-Ferrari1:30.645 1:30.423 N/A151620 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari1:30.975 N/AN/A161724 Zhou Guanyu1:31.020 N/AN/A171823 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes1:31.266 N/AN/A18196 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes1:31.325 N/AN/A19107% time: 1:35.737—31 Esteban OconAlpine-RenaultNo timeN/AN/A20Source: Notes – Esteban Ocon did not take part in qualifying due to an accident during the third practice session. He was permitted to race at the stewards' discretion.

Race The race started at 15:30 EDT (UTC−4) on May 8 and lasted 57 laps. Stroll and Vettel, who respectively qualified 10th and 13th, started the race from the pit lane after a fuel temperature issue.

Race report

In the first corner at the start, Verstappen overtook Sainz for second place and closed in on Leclerc, whom he passed for the lead on lap 9, as Leclerc struggled with the medium compound tyres. The race was interrupted on lap 41, as Norris's rear right tyre made contact with Gasly's front left, triggering a virtual safety car and then a safety car for five laps. Verstappen was pressured from Leclerc at the restart, and defended his position to take the win. On lap 52, Verstappen's teammate, Pérez, attempted to overtake Sainz into turn 1 but made a mistake and locked up. Vettel and Schumacher collided on lap 53, but no action was taken. Leclerc and Sainz finished second and third, respectively, while Pérez, who had temporarily suffered engine issues that cost him about 30 horsepower finished fourth, and Russell made up the top five.

After the race, Alonso was given two separate five-second penalties, which dropped him out of the top 10 for points, with Stroll promoted to 10th. Magnussen had two separate incidents following the restart with Stroll, retiring on the last lap; he was classified 16th as he completed more than 90% of the race distance.

Race classification DriverConstructorLapsTime/RetiredPoints11 Max VerstappenRed Bull Racing-RBPT571:34:24.258326216 Charles LeclercFerrari57 +3.786118355 Carlos Sainz Jr.Ferrari57 +8.229215411 Sergio PérezRed Bull Racing-RBPT57 +10.638412563 George RussellMercedes57 +18.5821210644 Lewis HamiltonMercedes57 +21.36868777 Valtteri BottasAlfa Romeo-Ferrari57 +25.07356831 Esteban OconAlpine-Renault57 +28.386204923 Alexander AlbonWilliams-Mercedes57 +32.3651821018 Lance Stroll57 +37.02611114 Fernando AlonsoAlpine-Renault57 +37.128111222 Yuki TsunodaAlphaTauri-RBPT57 +40.1469 133 Daniel RicciardoMcLaren-Mercedes57 +40.90214 146 Nicholas LatifiWilliams-Mercedes57 +49.936191547Haas-Ferrari57 +1:13.30515 1620 Kevin MagnussenHaas-Ferrari56Front wing16175 Sebastian VettelAston Martin Aramco-Mercedes54Collision damage 10 Pierre GaslyAlphaTauri-RBPT45Suspension7 4 Lando NorrisMcLaren-Mercedes39Collision8 24 Zhou GuanyuAlfa Romeo-Ferrari6Water leak17 Fastest lap: Max Verstappen (Red Bull Racing-RBPT) – 1:31.361 (lap 54)Source: Notes – Includes one point for fastest lap. – Lance Stroll and Sebastian Vettel qualified 10th and 13th, respectively, but they started the race from the pit lane as the fuel in their car was below the mandated minimum temperature. Their places on the grid were left vacant. – Fernando Alonso finished 8th, but he received two five-second time penalties. The first for causing a collision with Pierre Gasly and the second for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. – Daniel Ricciardo finished 11th, but he received a five-second time penalty for leaving the track and gaining an advantage. – Kevin Magnussen and Sebastian Vettel were classified as they completed more than 90% of the race distance. – Kevin Magnussen received a five-second time penalty for causing a collision with Lance Stroll. His final position was not affected by the penalty.

Championship standings after the race

Drivers' Championship standings Driver Points1 Charles Leclerc1042 Max Verstappen853 Sergio Pérez664 George Russell595 Carlos Sainz Jr.53Source:

Constructors' Championship standings Constructor Points1 Ferrari1572 Red Bull Racing-RBPT1513 Mercedes954 McLaren-Mercedes465 Alfa Romeo-Ferrari31Source:

Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.

See also 2022 W Series Miami round

Notes

References

Further reading